CREWE manager Dario Gradi was delighted after his side's return to winning ways last night.

The 4-2 win over Wycombe Wanderers at Gresty Road helped Crewe revive their promotion ambitions which had been undermined by back-to-back defeats on home soil.

'I thought it might be a good night because Graham, one of our gatemen who has been here for something like 150 years, always tells me what he thinks the score is going to be and it's not always a win,' said Gradi.

'Tonight he said we were going to win 5-1 and when we went 4-1 up, I thought he was going to be right!'

'The defence played much better, although we got caught out for the first goal, but considering how difficult it is to play out there with the ball bouncing around all the time, we played quite well.

'Wycombe had some athletes out there and got the ball in the box and I guess they're probably disappointed.'

Two goals from Dean Ashton along with a Kenny Lunt penalty and Rob Hulse's 50th senior goal for the club helped the Alex complete a league double over Lawrie Sanchez's Wycombe side.

Gradi said: 'We changed the tactics because I wasn't happy with playing with the one centre forward and two wingers on Saturday because we found it hard to combine.

'Our pitch also makes it difficult to play good football so we are going to have to play a little more direct at home with the two big guys up front and the centre halves like to hit it longer, but we still tried to play good football and we did at times.

'We altered it with Rodney Jack playing a little deeper and I thought he played the role very conscientiously. He was responsible with his defending and had an influence on the game.

'Dean Ashton has been looking sharp in training and it's always good to see your forwards scoring.

Gradi also paid tribute to the Alex supporters who gave their team good vocal backing throughout despite their recent sticky patch.

'They are always good here and by and large they realise what we're trying to do and appreciate it,' he said.

Crewe now prepare to make the short trip to Tranmere on Saturday and Gradi is expecting a tough test on the Wirral.

He said: 'Tranmere are a decent club with a good ground and a good following. We've always considered Tranmere to be a bigger club than us but perhaps we've caught them up a little over the last few years and in some aspects even overtaken them in that we're an Academy and they've had to stop theirs. They've had a good run and it will be a hard game for us.'